The Wild Man of the Navidad
From about 1836 settlers along the Navidad River in Texas told of a wild, naked figure who crept into kitchens at night, took half the food and borrowed tools, returning them polished. Enslaved people called it 'the thing that comes'.
1851 CE · 29.20, -96.70 · status: explained
The account
The story was later folded into Bigfoot lore as an early Texas 'wild man'. A Lavaca County historical marker told it as the tale of a runaway enslaved man who survived in the river bottoms for about fifteen years.
The sceptical view
In 1851 residents captured a naked African man who spoke no English; according to historian Myra Hargrave McIlvain, a sailor who spoke his language said he had been sold into slavery as a child and had escaped after reaching Texas. The 'wild man' was a person surviving in hiding.